Guggenheim expansion will damage natural park, say campaigners

Plans to extend Spain’s Guggenheim Museum would cause irreparable damage to the most important natural park in the Basque Country, environmental groups have warned. The Biscay government last week secured initial funding to extend the iconic Bilbao museum into the Urdaibai reserve at a total cost of €127m. The government plans two buildings in the estuary – one a refurbished cutlery factory and the other on top of former shipyards – will be 5km apart and linked by a “green path” along which visitors can walk, cycle or use an electric vehicle. But activists say the sustainability claims are a thin disguise for the damage an additional 140,000 visitors would cause to the wetlands system. The Times (£)